Caribbean Diaspora Consumer Research in Miami: Haitian, Jamaican & Trinidadian Market Insights

The Caribbean diaspora in the United States represents one of the most culturally vibrant and economically significant immigrant communities in the country. With approximately 3.5 million Caribbean-born residents nationwide (American Community Survey, 2023) and South Florida serving as the epicenter of this population, the diaspora drives $10.7 billion in annual remittances to Caribbean nations (World Bank, 2024) and billions more in nostalgia product consumption, ethnic food retail, travel, and telecommunications. Understanding this community's consumer behavior is essential for businesses targeting both the US ethnic market and Caribbean home markets — and no firm is better positioned to deliver these insights than Hope Research Group in Davie, Florida.

Understanding the Caribbean Diaspora Market

The Caribbean diaspora in the United States is a multi-billion dollar consumer market that remains underresearched and underserved by mainstream market research firms. Unlike broad “Black consumer” or “immigrant consumer” segmentation, Caribbean diaspora communities maintain distinct national identities, cultural practices, food preferences, media consumption patterns, and brand loyalties that require specialized research approaches. A Jamaican-American household in Miramar, FL has fundamentally different consumer behavior than a Haitian-American family in Little Haiti or a Trinidadian household in Lauderhill — even though all three may be classified identically in standard demographic surveys.

The diaspora's economic impact extends well beyond direct consumer spending. Caribbean immigrants in the US demonstrate higher rates of entrepreneurship than the general population, with 12.4% operating their own businesses compared to 9.8% nationally (Migration Policy Institute, 2024). These businesses — from restaurants and grocery stores to money transfer agencies and travel services — create secondary consumer ecosystems that amplify the diaspora's market significance. Our broader diaspora research provides additional context on these dynamics.

Key Diaspora Communities in South Florida

Haitian-Americans: Florida's Haitian-American community exceeds 1 million residents, with the highest concentrations in North Miami, Little Haiti (Miami-Dade), and the Broward County cities of Pompano Beach, North Lauderdale, and Lauderdale Lakes (ACS, 2023). Haitian-Americans send $4.4 billion annually to Haiti, representing 23% of Haiti's GDP (World Bank, 2024). Consumer behavior is characterized by strong brand loyalty to Haitian-origin products, heavy use of informal financial channels alongside formal remittance services, high rates of multi-generational household composition, and deep engagement with Haitian Creole-language media including radio, social media, and WhatsApp-based news sharing.

Jamaican-Americans: South Florida's Jamaican diaspora numbers over 300,000, concentrated in Broward County cities including Miramar, Lauderhill, Plantation, and Sunrise (ACS, 2023). The Jamaican community sends $3.6 billion in annual remittances, representing 16% of Jamaica's GDP (World Bank, 2024). Jamaican-Americans demonstrate distinctive consumer patterns around food (strong preference for Grace, Walkerswood, and Lasco brand products), music and entertainment (reggae and dancehall events drive significant spending), and travel (averaging 1.5 trips to Jamaica annually among first-generation immigrants). For broader Jamaican market insights, see our Jamaica Consumer Trends 2025 analysis.

Trinidadian & Tobagonian diaspora: The T&T diaspora in South Florida is significant and highly visible, particularly around Carnival season when Miami's Caribbean Carnival generates an estimated $50 million in economic impact (Miami-Dade County, 2024). Trinidadian-Americans maintain strong connections to home-country brands, particularly in FMCG categories like sauces (Matouk's, Chief), beverages (Carib, Stag), and snack foods. The community also includes a substantial Indo-Caribbean segment with distinct food preferences and cultural practices.

Bahamian & Guyanese communities: South Florida's Bahamian community, concentrated in Miami-Dade County, maintains deep historical ties dating back generations and represents a unique segment with strong brand preferences and travel patterns tied to proximity. The Guyanese diaspora, growing rapidly in Broward County, brings both Afro-Caribbean and Indo-Caribbean consumer behaviors, with distinct food preferences around roti, curry, and Caribbean-East Indian fusion cuisine. Guyana's booming oil economy (GDP grew 62.3% in 2022, IMF, 2024) has increased diaspora travel and investment activity, creating new research opportunities around homeland investment behavior and cross-border financial flows.

Eastern Caribbean communities: Smaller but significant diaspora populations from Barbados, St. Lucia, Grenada, St. Vincent, Antigua, and Dominica add further complexity to South Florida's Caribbean consumer landscape. These communities, while smaller individually, collectively represent tens of thousands of consumers with strong connections to home-country brands, festivals (Crop Over, Spicemas, Vincy Mas), and culinary traditions. Understanding these micro-segments is essential for brands seeking comprehensive Caribbean diaspora market penetration in South Florida.

Consumer Behavior Patterns

Caribbean diaspora consumers in South Florida exhibit several distinctive behavioral patterns that differentiate them from both general-market consumers and other immigrant groups. Brand loyalty to home-country products is exceptionally strong: 73% of first-generation Caribbean immigrants report purchasing at least one Caribbean-origin food product weekly, and 45% report that they would switch stores entirely to find their preferred Caribbean brands (Hope Research Group proprietary survey, 2024). This loyalty creates opportunities for Caribbean product exporters and challenges for mainstream brands seeking to capture diaspora market share.

Remittance behavior shapes broader financial product preferences. An estimated 68% of Caribbean-born adults in South Florida send money home at least monthly (World Bank, 2024), creating a consumer base that is highly price-sensitive around transfer fees, familiar with digital payment platforms, and receptive to bundled financial products that combine remittance services with savings or insurance offerings. Media consumption patterns are heavily skewed toward digital and social platforms, with WhatsApp serving as the primary communication and news-sharing channel for 82% of Caribbean diaspora adults in South Florida (Pew Research Center, 2024).

Brand Loyalty & Purchase Decision-Making

Caribbean diaspora consumers demonstrate some of the highest brand loyalty levels of any US consumer segment. Our research shows that 67% of first-generation Caribbean immigrants report always or usually purchasing the same brands their families used in their home countries (Hope Research Group, 2024). This loyalty creates significant barriers for mainstream brands attempting to enter diaspora households, but also presents opportunities for Caribbean exporters and specialty distributors who can reliably supply preferred brands in the US market.

Purchase decision-making in Caribbean diaspora households often involves complex generational dynamics. First-generation immigrants tend to drive brand selection for food, personal care, and household products, while second-generation family members often influence technology, entertainment, and fashion purchases. The concept of “cultural gatekeeping” — where older family members actively resist brand switching in culturally significant categories like rice, seasonings, and beverages — is a distinctive feature of Caribbean diaspora consumer behavior that standard brand-switching models fail to capture.

Word-of-mouth and community recommendations are disproportionately influential in Caribbean diaspora purchase decisions. Our research consistently shows that recommendations from family, friends, and community members rank as the number one purchase influence for 58% of Caribbean diaspora consumers, compared to 34% for the general US population (Hope Research Group, 2024). This pattern has significant implications for marketing strategy, favoring community engagement, ambassador programs, and event-based activation over traditional mass media advertising.

Nostalgia Products & Ethnic Retail

The US Caribbean nostalgia food market is estimated at $2.8 billion annually (IBISWorld, 2024), with South Florida representing the largest single geographic market. Caribbean grocery stores, including chains like Bravo Supermarkets, Caribbean Food Delights retail locations, and independent ethnic grocers, serve as community anchors and primary retail channels for imported Caribbean products. These stores stock everything from Jamaican patties and Haitian pikliz to Trinidadian pepper sauce and Guyanese cassava bread, alongside mainstream products.

Beyond food, nostalgia consumption extends to beauty and personal care products (Caribbean-origin hair care and skin products are a growing segment), home goods, music and entertainment, and even construction materials for diaspora members building homes in their countries of origin. Understanding the retail landscape requires in-store ethnography, shelf audits, and shopper intercept methodologies that our team conducts regularly across South Florida's ethnic retail ecosystem. Related insights on Caribbean retail dynamics are available in our Caribbean retail industry analysis.

Remittance Behavior & Financial Services

Remittances are the economic lifeline connecting Caribbean diaspora communities to their home countries. The $10.7 billion sent annually from the US to the Caribbean (World Bank, 2024) represents a massive financial flow that shapes both diaspora consumer behavior and home-market economies. Jamaica receives $3.6 billion (16% of GDP), Haiti receives $4.4 billion (23% of GDP), Guyana receives $615 million (10% of GDP), and Trinidad & Tobago receives $178 million (World Bank, 2024). These flows create a consumer segment that is acutely aware of transfer fees, exchange rates, and service reliability.

Digital remittance platforms have captured 47% of the Caribbean remittance market from traditional wire transfer services since 2020 (World Bank, 2024), driven by lower fees, mobile-first interfaces, and real-time transfer capabilities. Platforms like Remitly, WorldRemit, and Caribbean-focused services compete alongside traditional operators like Western Union and MoneyGram. Our research shows that diaspora consumers who use digital remittance services are 3.2x more likely to adopt other digital financial products, including mobile banking, digital wallets, and cryptocurrency platforms (Hope Research Group, 2024).

Travel Patterns & Homeland Connections

Caribbean diaspora travel represents a significant economic driver for both South Florida's travel industry and Caribbean tourism sectors. First-generation Caribbean immigrants in South Florida average 1.5 trips annually to their home countries, spending an average of $2,800 per trip on airfare, accommodation, gifts, and local spending (Caribbean Tourism Organization, 2024). This “visiting friends and relatives” (VFR) travel segment is distinct from leisure tourism and follows different seasonal patterns, typically peaking around Christmas, Easter, summer holidays, and national independence celebrations.

Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport and Miami International Airport serve as the primary departure points for Caribbean diaspora travel, with direct service to Kingston, Montego Bay, Port-au-Prince, Cap-Haitien, Port of Spain, Nassau, Georgetown, and dozens of other Caribbean destinations. Caribbean airlines including Caribbean Airlines, JetBlue, Spirit, and American Airlines compete aggressively for this loyal travel segment, which tends to book further in advance and travel with more luggage — including barrels of goods shipped to family members — than typical leisure travelers. Our Caribbean tourism statistics provide additional context on these travel flows.

Research Approaches for Diaspora Populations

Standard market research methodologies often fail to adequately capture Caribbean diaspora consumer behavior. Online panels underrepresent first-generation immigrants, particularly Haitian Creole speakers and older Caribbean adults with lower digital literacy. Hope Research Group employs community-embedded recruitment through Caribbean churches, cultural organizations, sports leagues, and social clubs. We conduct in-language research in English, Haitian Creole, Jamaican Patois, and Trinidad Creole English, using interviewers from the target communities who understand cultural nuances and can build rapport.

Recruitment for diaspora research requires specialized approaches that go beyond standard databases. Caribbean community churches serve as critical recruitment hubs, particularly for Haitian-American respondents where church attendance rates exceed 75% (Hope Research Group, 2024). Caribbean-owned businesses including restaurants, barber shops, beauty salons, and shipping services provide additional recruitment touchpoints. Cultural events such as Jamaica's Independence Day celebrations in August, Haitian Flag Day in May, and Trinidad Carnival season create opportunities for large-scale intercept research that reaches community members who may not participate in traditional research panels.

Our diaspora research toolkit includes in-store intercept surveys at Caribbean grocery stores and specialty retailers, ethnographic observation of shopping behavior and product selection, WhatsApp-based mobile surveys that leverage the community's preferred communication platform, community event intercepts at Carnival, Independence Day celebrations, and cultural festivals, and analysis of Caribbean social media and online forums. We also leverage our field operations in Jamaica, Trinidad, Haiti, and across the Caribbean to conduct paired studies that compare diaspora behavior with home-market consumer patterns, delivering insights that inform both US ethnic marketing and Caribbean brand strategies.

Media Consumption & Digital Engagement

Caribbean diaspora media consumption patterns in South Florida differ substantially from both general-market and Hispanic media behaviors. WhatsApp is the dominant communication platform, used by 82% of Caribbean diaspora adults daily (Pew Research Center, 2024), serving not only for personal messaging but as a primary news source, community organizing tool, and even informal commerce channel. Caribbean-origin radio stations in South Florida — including Haitian Creole stations in North Miami and Jamaican-focused programming in Broward — maintain loyal audiences despite digital disruption.

Social media usage skews heavily toward Facebook (78% penetration among Caribbean-born adults over 35) and Instagram (65% among under-35), with TikTok gaining rapid traction among second-generation diaspora youth (Pew Research Center, 2024). YouTube is a critical platform for consuming Caribbean news, music, and cultural content, with Jamaican music and Haitian news channels generating millions of views from diaspora audiences. Caribbean diaspora consumers are also heavy users of Caribbean news websites and apps, maintaining daily engagement with home-country current affairs and entertainment. Understanding these media patterns is essential for any brand seeking to reach and engage diaspora consumers effectively.

For brands targeting Caribbean diaspora consumers, our research consistently shows that authenticity is the most critical factor in advertising effectiveness. Diaspora consumers are highly attuned to “performative” cultural representation and respond most positively to marketing that features genuine Caribbean cultural elements, uses appropriate dialect and idioms, and demonstrates real understanding of community values and traditions. Generic “multicultural” advertising that lumps Caribbean communities with other ethnic groups consistently underperforms origin-specific creative in our brand tracking studies.

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